Effect of Sustainable Report Disclosure on Investor Confidence of Energy Group in Thai Listed Company

Abstract

Currently, interest is paid to public company's sustainability reports on the Thai listed companies. This is particularly true for companies in the energy group, whose business operations have an impact on sustainability reporting. Establishing fundamental reporting policies on sustainability for industry organizations whose energy consumption influences social responsibility. The extent of disclosure was determined in accordance with the global reporting initiative (GRI) concept. It is comprised of 30 indicators divided into three categories: environment side, social side, and governance side. The purpose of this investigation is to examine to answer research questions, the level of sustainability report disclosure affects investor confidence.: First, to study the sustainable report disclosure positively affects on corporate governance score of energy groups in Thai listed companies. Second, to study the sustainable report disclosure positively affects investor confidence in energy groups in Thai listed companies. Third, to study the corporate governance score positively affects investor confidence in the energy group in Thai listed companies. Fourth, to study factors influencing the disclosure of corporate social responsibility information of energy groups in Thai listed companies.

Samples of research were data investigation in the energy group of Thai listed companies. Fund corporations, excluding asset management companies, companies that have been in operation for less than three years and those that do not desire to disclose their good corporate governance score from the Thai Institute of directors’ association composed of 46 research samples. Between 2019 and 2021 total 138 companies, data were collected from the annual report on sustainability report disclosure, the corporate governance report of Thai listed companies (CGR) Report, stock price data, and the annual report on the structure of the board of directors. To conduct a multiple regression analysis, the results indicated that the disclosure of the three categories of sustainability reports positively affected the good corporate governance score and investor confidence and that the good corporate governance score positively affected investor confidence. In addition, the results of four antecedent factors were as follows: first, antecedent chief executive office duality was negatively significant across all dimensions of the sustainability report; second, antecedent board size was positively significant across all dimensions of the sustainability report; third, antecedent board independence was not significant across all dimensions of the sustainability report; and fourth, antecedence accounting professional board was not significant across all dimensions of the sustainability report.

The conclusion of the study indicated that companies in the energy group among Thai listed companies. Considering the release of three categories of sustainability reports, the more sustainability reports that are produced, the greater investor confidence has increased. The more information is made available, the higher level of strong corporate governance scores has increased and the corporate governance score effect to the greater investor confidence has increased. These include non-chief executive office duality and an increase in the extent of the board of directors. Additionally, according to the three categories of sustainability report disclosure levels, except for the increase in the number of independent directors and the number of accounting professionals on their board, the board has no effect on the level of disclosure in sustainability reports of energy groups in Thai listed energy companies. Because sometimes impartial board members and executives with accounting experience, it is less concerned with the disclosure of sustainability reports and more concerned with financial performance.

Research limitations due to the limited number of energy group in Thai listed companies listed on the stock exchange. As a result, some variables do not support sustainability disclosure reports. The researcher recommends that future research choose a group of companies in Thai listed with a higher sample if companies, such as industrial materials group, etc. And chose criteria other than global reporting Initiative criteria can be recommended to be utilized, such as the sustainability accounting standard board, international sustainability standards board, and corporate sustainability reporting directive to examine the level of disclosure of sustainability reports in Thailand and other countries.

-